


Who Needs The Sea When I Have You

by seibelsays



Series: Leather and Brine [2]
Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Invaders (Marvel), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Darcy Lewis Bingo 2020, F/M, Fluff, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2020, Selkies, nose kisses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25475782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seibelsays/pseuds/seibelsays
Summary: How to get yourself selkie married:1. Find a selkie2. Accidentally steal, hide, and repeatedly return said selkie's skin until he's sobbing in confusion.3. Live happily ever after.This is a small peek into that happily ever after.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Series: Leather and Brine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1845415
Comments: 46
Kudos: 310
Collections: Darcy Lewis Bingo, Marvel Fluff Bingo, Marvel Summer Fun Fest





	Who Needs The Sea When I Have You

**Author's Note:**

> For the Marvel Summer Fun Fest prompt: **Day at the Beach** , my Marvel Fluff Bingo square: **Nose Kisses** , and my Darcy Lewis Bingo square: **Accidental Marriage**
> 
> I'd recommend reading Leather and Brine first, but the highlights are in the summary as a refresher.

_Affectionate and affable, Selkies are true hidden gems of mythology; their myths are sweeping romantic tragedies. While the tales of Selkies always begin with a warm and peaceful "once upon a time", there can be no happy ending for the tales of Selkies - someone always gets their heart broken._  
Ianto Boothby, Legends of the Sea, Ragnarok Press, 1917.

_That crap doesn’t apply to us, do you hear me? The rules of your fairy tale are bogus so I am changing the ending!_  
Darcy Lewis

* * *

“Heh,” Bucky huffed as he read the news alert on his phone. “Well, would you look at that. They’re gonna call the new hockey team out in Seattle the Kraken.”

“Millie will be thrilled,” Darcy said, carefully pulling what looked to be a well-loved leather jacket out of her bag. “Did they use the photos she let us take as reference for the logo?”

“We’ll see,” Bucky grinned. “They’d be silly not to though, right?”

“Well, considering the Kraken is supposed to be mythical, they probably thought the photos were fakes.”

“Selkies are supposed to be mythical too, you know,” Bucky reminded her.

“Yes, and as far as anyone besides you and me know, they still are,” Darcy shot back.

“Hey, Steve’s in on it too,” Bucky said. “I told _him_ back in the 40s.” His eyes lit up and he pulled out his phone again. “He’s gonna flip when I tell him about the team.”

Darcy laughed. “Okay, future boy. Enough with the phone and help me with this thing already.”

Bucky hit send on his message, then tossed his phone into her bag and locked it in the car before getting a good look at her as she stood on the beach.

Seeing Darcy - love of his life, his _everything_ \- wrapped up in his selkie skin would never fail to do funny things to his heart. That feeling had only grown in the time since she’d first found him, wildly searching for his lost skin in the storage bins at the Smithsonian. 

Today though - today was different. Today, Darcy would try out a selkie skin of her very own for the first time.

“So how do I do this thing?” she asked, fidgeting with the second skin in her hands.

“You don’t remember?” he teased. “You’ve done this before.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, _you_ did it, being a self-sacrificing idiot,” she complained. The sting of her rebuke was lessened by the fondness in her tone. 

“To save you? I’d do it a thousand times over,” he replied.

“Well, how about we just decide that it’s not going to get to that point ever again? Between Millie and Namor, I feel like we’ve got any ocean-related disasters covered.”

“Fine by me,” Bucky agreed. “I’m more than happy to focus on us.”

Darcy flushed at the comment, a pleased smile growing as she continued to fidget with the soft leather in her hands. 

He leaned in and dropped a quick bunny kiss to her nose, then touched his forehead to hers as she giggled at his antics. He breathed her in for a few heartbeats then pulled away slightly to look at her. 

“Ready?”

Darcy bit her lip, clearly nervous, but gave him a brave smile. “Yes. What do I do?”

“Pull it on, around your shoulders,” he directed. She shrugged off his selkie skin and handed it back to him with a knowing smile, then pulled her own skin on as instructed. He smiled back at her. “You remember how you told me that you felt like my skin was calling to you, asking you to protect it? Hold on to that feeling, use it to reach out to the skin around your shoulders now. Close your eyes and say hello.”

Darcy closed her eyes, her lips pursing in concentration for a moment then - 

“Oh.”

Bucky grinned. “Yep. Now picture going into the water, going for a swim.”

Darcy’s smile grew. “There are a lot of happy feelings about that.”

“I’ll bet.” Darcy’s skin had been buried at the base of a tree without a selkie to claim it in quite some time. But thanks to her friend Ian, they were able to find it and dig it up for Darcy to use. Even if Darcy was only part-selkie, she still had the magic. It counted. And from the sounds of it, her new skin had already taken quite the liking to her. Bucky understood the feeling. “Now, you should - “

With a startled yip, Darcy the human suddenly materialized into Darcy the seal. 

Bucky laughed. “Guess you’ve got it. You’re a natural.” He motioned to the water. “Shall we?”

Darcy happily made her way into the waves with an excited bark. Bucky watched her play for a few moments before donning his own skin and joining her.

The waves were plentiful today, as though the sea itself were showing off for the world’s newest selkie. Bucky privately wondered how much of a hand Namor had in it and resolved to tease him for it later. The sea king might maintain a grumpy exterior, but it was no secret that he had a soft spot for Darcy. Bucky suspected it was because on their first meeting, Darcy threatened to tase him. Namor always did have a thing for the feisty ones.

After an hour or so, Darcy’s enthusiasm was beginning to lag as she grew tired. Eventually, she would probably be as comfortable in the water as she was on land. But she was still mostly human and this was their first time out. She would grow into it.

Bucky nudged her towards the shore. As soon as they were in shallow enough water, Bucky changed into his human form, just in case he had to talk Darcy through changing back. He should know better than to underestimate his girl by now though - Darcy changed back as well quickly after.

“That. Was. Awesome!” she cried.

Bucky grinned. “Better than last time?”

“Okay, last time you nearly drowned and then bled all over my beach. So yes. Obviously.”

Bucky plopped down in the sand, just out of reach of the tide and patted the spot next to him. Darcy accepted the invitation, snuggling into his side as she settled on the ground. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her closer and she closed her eyes with a happy sigh. Bucky lost track of the time as they sat in a content cuddle pile, listening to the waves.

Eventually, Darcy sat up, rolling her neck and shoulders as her joints popped. 

“Probably shouldn’t have sat so long after the swim,” she said, her voice a little rueful. 

Bucky reached for her, squeezing her shoulders lightly as her head fell forward and she let out a soft sigh of relief. “Here you go,” he said. “All better.”

Darcy looked up at him with a smile. “You always take such good care of me.”

“Well yeah. ‘Course. Won’t catch me doing anything else.”

“That’s true,” she murmured, staring at him rather intently. She grabbed her selkie skin and quickly wrapped it around his shoulders, her fingers catching on it briefly as she let her hands fall away.

Bucky’s breath caught in his chest. Surely, she wouldn’t - she hadn’t grown up a selkie, she didn’t - she couldn’t - 

Could she?

“Oh damn,” Darcy said, her voice flat with sarcasm. “I accidentally selkie married you. _Again_.”

“Darcy,” Bucky choked out, his voice strangled.

Darcy’s expression softened at his reaction. “Yeah, Buck.”

“You don’t - I mean…” his voice tailed off.

She leaned in and kissed him. “I’d like you to hang onto this for me,” she said, giving the leather a gentle tug. “I know you’ll take good care of it.”

Bucky drew in a shaky breath as he looked at her. All this time and she still knew exactly how to take his breath away. She smiled at him and he burst out in startled laughter.

“How many times are we going to do this?” he asked, cheeks hurting a little from just how big his smile had grown. He didn’t mind.

Darcy shrugged, matching his grin. “I figure at this point, we may as well shoot for a record. Besides, you _did_ promise you’d marry me in every way possible on this planet and any other one we might find.”

“I did promise you that.” He leaned in and gave her nose another quick peck of a kiss. She scrunched up her face at the feeling, so he leaned back in for a real kiss to make up for it. “Want to start planning our next accidental wedding?”

“Nah,” Darcy said, snuggling into his side once more. “I kinda like the surprise.”

**Author's Note:**

> The NHL announced Seattle's team name yesterday and I couldn't help myself. Millie the Kraken is so pleased.


End file.
